1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to shoes with high uppers especially intended for sports, or of an orthopedic character, and whose upper has at least one relatively rigid part serving to hold and support the rear or front of the lower leg of the wearer. It concerns a control column that is an organ to distribute the pressure of the lower leg on the upper, and more particularly, a device to adjust the position of this control column in relation to the rest of the upper on which it is mounted.
2. Description of Background and Other Information
Among the shoes more precisely concerned by the invention are ski boots, and it is in reference to these that the invention will be described in particular, it being understood that any transposition, in the context of the invention, could be made for other types of shoes, especially for ice hockey or other sports, and for orthopedic shoes where the front or back support of the lower leg of the wearer is important.
For ski boots, the purely descriptive category which we have chosen, the problem of the importance of a comfortable and effective support for the lower leg of the skier is clearly described in the introduction to the description of French Patent No. 2,089,128, and it is thus not necessary to elaborate on considerations which are now well known by man of the art.
In the following, reference will be made to contemporary boots, with a rigid shell on which is attached a rigid upper around a transverse axis in a single piece, or as is also known, made of a forward collar and a rear cover, and on which is mounted, joined to the monolithic upper or to one of its respective parts, a support element for the lower leg, called a control column, because it is intended to distribute, in the front or back, the stress and contact pressure from wearing the boot itself and from its use, which can be particularly dynamic, and critical for the wearer. However, it must remain clear that in the context of the invention, the most important thing is the upper which includes at least one rigid upper front or rear part on which the control column is mounted. The rest of the construction of the boot is completely unconcerned in the concept of its lower part, particularly the base of the rigid shell and upper in one or two parts (collar and rear cover attached or not to the base of the shell.
In French Patent No. 2,089,128, a hook is provided, approximately equivalent to what we call the "control column", attached to a lever which is attached to the rear part of the boot upper. Outside of the double joint which renders construction of the device extremely complex, a cam pressing on the rear part of the collar adjusts the extreme angular position cf the hook in the rear direction. In this type of construction, the hook or control column follows the movement of the lower leg in the rear direction, supplying them with some delay or inertia because of the freedom of the articulation of the lever which holds it in relation to the rear part of the upper. Also, it should be noted that the device described, particularly because of its extreme bulkiness and not being integrated into the general shape of the boot, applies only as described to the rear part of the upper or a rear covering, and thus would not be transposable, even if only for construction and esthetic reasons, to a forward control column mounted on the front part of the upper or part of the collar.
European Patent Application No. 0,229,638 describes a control column device mounted on the rear part of the upper or the rear cover, or on the forward part of the upper or the collar, attempting to respond to the same concerns. The control column is attached to the collar or to the rear cover or the rear part of the upper. A latching device permits the adjustment of the position of the rear stop of the control column for rear lower leg supports, but nothing is in the way of an upward displacement of the control column. The adjustment point of the lower stop can change in an untimely manner during the maneuvers of the wearer, and manual intervention at rest is necessary to return to the original adjustment conditions.
The same document also describes the device where the incline of the control column can be positively adjusted in both directions by two link connection rods on the control column and to non-rotating nuts and engaged by to opposite threads which present a transverse upper controlled by a retractable lever. The lever is only retractable in one position, adjustment can be only be made by sudden changes in amplitude corresponding to a 360.degree. rotation of the threaded upper.
Another solution proposed in the same document is to use, between the control column and the shoe upper, a parallelpiped stop tilting between two stable positions. No intermediary stable position between these two extremes is possible, and nothing is mentioned concerning control of the stop to pass from one extreme position to the other.
For the parallelpiped stop, as proposed, a cam can be substituted in the form of a wedge tilting between two extreme positions around an axis parallel to the general axis of the boot. Here again, no progressive adjustment between the two stable extreme positions is provided.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,203,235 which we note in passing, only applies to a rear control column device, apparently not transposable because of the complexity of construction to a front collar, where one tries to obtain an adjustment, not by separate sudden changes but by continuous changes in the position of the control column. This concept uses wedges inserted between the rear part of the boot upper and the control column and thus the relative position is adjustable. As already mentioned, this construction is extremely complex and can only be conceived for the rear of the boot upper.